India finished off their home season on a high, crushing every team that came their way. The long season took its toll on its regular test team players and as many as 6 players are ruled out for initial phase or for full IPL starting from 5th April. Rahul and Vijay will nurse their shoulder injury picked up during the England tour. Kohli got his shoulder injured while fielding in Ranchi and Ashwin has been ruled out due to a sports hernia. Jadeja and Umesh Yadav are expected to join their respective teams in the third week of the tournament after a break.
However, the national players won't have to compensate their paycheck and BCCI's player insurance for the IPL will help them out. The players' insurance scheme was introduced after the fourth edition of the tournament and is a policy for all the BCCI contracted players. The insurance will compensate the contracted players for their unavailability in the tournament due to injury or illness.
Eligibility criteria for the insurance compensation come under when a player picks up an injury while on national duty or playing domestic cricket under BCCI. While contracted players enjoy this benefit from the BCCI, non-contracted players miss out and have to bear the loss.
If a player returns mid-season of the tournament, the insurance will be compensated proportionally to the IPL fees and the number of matches the player misses and the compensation is shared by the BCCI and the franchise. BCCI bears all the compensation if a contracted player misses the full tournament.
If MS Dhoni would have got injured while playing Vijay Hazare trophy and would have to miss the whole tournament, his 12.5 crore fees with Rising Pune would have been compensated by the BCCI. Similarly, Virat Kohli is expected to miss three weeks of the IPL and his 15 crore fees in proportion for 3 matches with RCB will be shared by the franchise and BCCI.
BCCI has partnered with Alliance Insurance for its Grade-A, B and C players and the total sum insurance for one season is approx 130 crores. The insurance covers one full year for a premium of 4 crores. The BCCI medical team advises the BCCI and IPL governing council and the compensation is transferred to the players. Suresh Raina must be feeling very unlucky to miss out on central contract this year and will be disastrous if he will have to miss out due to any reason.
BW Reporters
The author is a correspondent with BW Businessworld with keen interest in HR and employee welfare.